Hannah's Blog 2: Can everyone be a vegetarian?

More speaking practice this week, this time with a debating lesson. I put forward the following stance:

'Everyone should become a vegetarian.' Discuss.

Giving them some shocking facts about the meat industry, as well as valid arguments against everyone choosing vegetarianism, I split my students into for and against.

The pro-vegetarian team convinced me with the following:

- Vegetarianism is healthier for our body

- The meat industry promotes animal cruelty

- Vegetarianism is more environmentally friendly, lots of land and water is needed for cattle farming. Crops that are used to feed animals could be used to end world hunger!

However, although vegetarianism would be an ideal, sustainable choice, there were still many arguments that could be found against it!

- Many farmers in developing country rely on their livestock for their own income

- Not all consumers have a choice in what they eat

- Vegetarianism requires more careful planning

- Soya, a meat substitute used to make tofu, actually requires lots of resources to be produced, and has to be shipped to other countries where soya is not naturally grown

- Scientists are producing meat in test labs without harming a single animal

My students formed logical arguments and counteracted their opposite team well. Because they performed wonderfully in the debate I thought I would horrify them further with a shocking article about the dairy industry that I saw in the Guardian last week. Here is the link below:

I asked everyone what the article was about, and their personal opinion on how the cows were treated. They responded by saying it was horrible, that the dairy industry is shocking.

So, would you become vegetarian? Would you stop drinking milk?

No, they replied, arguing that they needed the protein.

Maybe back in England it would be a lot easier to be a vegetarian or vegan, but most Ecuadorians cannot afford to be so selective. Here people eat what they have without a fuss. To conclude, I would say that ideally everyone should be vegetarian, but not everyone can become one.